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Janine Schwieger, Nkele and Richard before and after the NYC Marathon.
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Richard Priest, Achilles Guide at NYC Marathon
10.Jan.2012 Richard Priest, a soon to be 7-year veteran of Craftsbury running camps, tried something a bit different in November’s New York City marathon: he ran as an Achilles International guide. Achilles International provides able-bodied athlete volunteers and pairs them with disabled runners. Richard and his fellow Achilles guide, Janine Schweiger, were paired with Nkele Mosiane from South Africa. Nkele is a 45-year old above the knee amputee (one leg) who had walked the NYC marathon twice before. This year she was taking a go at it on a handcycle. Richard was accepted as a guide a month before the marathon and he met Nkele two days before the race at an Achilles International event.
Richard’s report:
“It was rise and shine at 3:00 am since I had to take a cab to the apartment where the South Africans were staying. As Nkele’s guide, I was responsible for getting her to the start and for hauling around the handcycle. Two hours, and a bunch of buses and metro’s later, we arrived at the start line on Staten Island. We found our way to the designated corral area for disabled athletes.
“Since Nkele had no idea how fast or slow she would go, I was a bit pre-occupied with the pace! The first mile, which is all uphill to the top of the Verrazano Narrows bridge, took 23:00. This would not prove representative of the next 12 miles. The concept was simple: Nkele was slow going up the hills, but she was lightning fast on the downhills! Miles 2-12 of New York are basically downhill. If you remove the first mile, we were averaging 8:30 pace by the halfway point. This is way too fast for me and I told my co-guide, Janine, that I could not sustain that speed for much longer. Janine was amazing and she was the backbone of our team.
“Fortunately for me, the course got a little flatter, the running crowd a little more dense, and Nkele a little tired. There were 2 long bathroom stops, a detour because of the handcycle which added 0.2 miles and a chain blowout which Janine fixed. Despite all this we finished in 5:07 and change. Nkele was very happy, I escorted her back to her apartment and returned to my hotel for a power shower.
“All in all, it was fun and I’d probably do it again. The hardest part was probably hauling the handcycle around - especially after the marathon!”
Thanks to Richard for sharing his experience with us. Want to find out how you can team with a disabled athlete? Check out Achilles International’s website - www.achillesinternational.org.
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